BACKGROUND Factors previously shown to influence patient care include effective decision making, team work, evidence based practice, staffing and job satisfaction. Clinical rounds have the potential to optimise these factors and impact on patient outcomes, but use of this strategy by intensive care nurses has not been reported. OBJECTIVES To determine the effect of implementing Nursing Rounds...

e are currently in a global economic crisis that “threatens to derail the economic development achieved in many countries and to erode the faith of the people in the open International trading system” (Lamy, 2003, part 4). In this context, the question is how to generate competitive advantages that have an impact on organizational effectiveness without jeopardizing the quality of life for emplo...

Work-life balance is an area of increasing importance to both employees seeking to balance work and non-work roles a nd to organisations striving to improve their organisational effectiveness or competitive advantage (Greenhaus & Powell 2006; Gregory & Milner 2009). While there is no consistent definition of work-life balance, there are consistent themes which include: employees achieving an ac...

The manning of a ship is a major driver of total ownership cost. The Government Accounting Office (GAO) states that “the cost of the ship’s crew is the largest expense incurred over the ship’s lifetime” [1]. This cost is largely determined by decisions made during concept design, which may include significant new support costs ashore. Consequently, reliable manpower estimates and related design...

A critical success factor of business process redesign projects is the extent to which the organisation members themselves both management and staff are actively involved in the redesign project. Assessing alternative process designs with respect to the redesign project goals is an important aspect of such projects. One way to support the assessment of different redesign alternatives is to mode...

Background: The impact of organizational climate on physicians and their patients is not well understood. The Minimizing Error, Maximizing Outcome (MEMO) Study investigates this question through a conceptual model that relates office working conditions to quality of care, as mediated by physician reactions. Methods: MEMO is a longitudinal study of physicians and patients in New York, Chicago, a...

Professionals who care for long-term and seriously ill patients frequently experience distressing emotional situations and profound suffering. These emotions can include the need to ‘rescue’ patients, a sense of failure and frustration when the illness progresses, feelings of powerlessness against the illness and its associated losses, grief, fear of becoming ill oneself and a desire to remain ...

This article examines the shortand long-term effects of entering the LIS workforce during a recession. It looks specifically at cohorts graduating from six North Carolina LIS programs during the recessions of 1973–75, 1980–82, 1990–91, and 2001 and compares aspects of their starting job, current job, pay, and indicators of job quality with those of nonrecession graduates of the same programs ov...

Nursing is at a crossroads. Emerging from the peak of one worst pandemics in history, nursing profession facing multiple challenges: hospitals and other facilities report growing nurse shortage, new graduates express uncertainty about their readiness to practice, education both grappling with faculty shortage scrutinizing best methods for educating students, violence toward healthcare providers...